This sounds like one of the things that *must* have been studied
properly by someone, but I have been unable as yet to find any
published empirical results:
Are multiword identifiers easier to read if the words are separated
(by hyphens as in COBOL or lisp or underscores as in Ada or C)
or if they are run together in baStudlyCaps style?
I have searched the PPIG mail archive, so I am aware that there has been
work on *typography*, which comes close but doesn't ring the bell, and I
have found published work about using whole words or abbreviations, which
again comes close but doesn't ring the bell. I am also aware of the
advice in the Ada Quality and Style Guidelines (which has no reference to
any published work on this particular topic) and in 'man perlstyle', and
in Betrand Meyer's OOSC book. I've also spent a couple of hours trawling
the web.
Sufficiently old studies may fail to ring the bell for another reason:
the readability difference, if any, between ATROPHY and A_TROPHY is
arguably different from that between aTrophy and a_trophy.
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